Germany overtook the US to become the largest buyer of coffee from Brazil in 2025 after US imports fell sharply due to high tariffs.

Brazil exported 5.4 million 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags of coffee to Germany last year, giving it a 13.5% share of total exports, the Brazilian coffee exporters association Cecafe said.

The US, traditionally the biggest buyer, slipped to second place with imports of 5.3 million bags, down 33% from a year earlier. Cecafe said the decline was largely driven by temporary US tariffs of 50% imposed by Donald Trump, which stayed in place for nearly four months between early August and late November.

“In the almost four months in which high tariffs were imposed on all types of Brazilian coffee, our shipments to the US collapsed by 55%,” Cecafe President Marcio Ferreira said.

Trump imposed the tariffs on a range of Brazilian food products in response to legal proceedings against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, seen as a Trump ally. Bolsonaro has since been convicted and is serving a prison sentence of more than 27 years for an attempted coup.

As food prices rose in the United States, Trump largely rolled back the tariffs in November

– dw